Blog de de Viajes aventureros y Fotografía Artística

Han pasado ya varios meses desde la primera vez que hablé con él, y por aquel entonces nunca pensé que la vida pudiera brindarme una oportunidad como la que he vivido este fin de semana. Cuando Joel me propuso ayudarle a organizar un workshop en Bilbao, los ojos se me abrieron como platos y pasé, literalmente, varias noches sin dormir! Pensando en prepararlo todo lo mejor posible, dando la lata con el taller en los muros de todos mis amigos, y viendo muchas muchas películas y series en inglés porque ya casi lo tenía olvidado (Y al final no ha ido tan mal, no? Nos hemos entendido! 🙂 )It’s been several months since the first time I talked to him, and by that time I never would have though that life could bring me an opportunity as the one I lived this weekend. When Joel asked me to help him with his workshop en Bilbao, my eyes opened so wide and I literally spent more than one night without sleep! Thinking about how to organize it, advertising the workshop in all my friends’ wall, and watching a bunch of films and series in English because I thought I had forgotten everything I learnt at school (But it didn’t go that bad, right? We got to understand each other! 🙂 )

El jueves por la noche Guille y yo nos acercamos hasta el aeropuerto para recoger a Joel y a Desirée, que no se cómo lo hicieron, pero aunque la una venía de Badajoz, y el otro desde Londres, sus aviones aterrizaron en Bilbao a la misma hora, así que fueron instantes de muchos nervios e ilusión. A Guille y a mí parecía que se nos iba a salir el corazón del pecho mientras mirábamos la gente que iba apareciendo detrás de la puerta. Primero llegó Desireé, ya grabando su vlog desde el minuto O. Hacía ya 6 meses desde la última vez que nos vimos y se la echaba muuucho de menos <3 Esperamos los 3 juntos hasta que Joel asomó la cabecita. Yo no sabía si saltar de alegría o morirme de la vergüenza. No siempre se conoce a alguien tan importante! Fuimos juntos hasta el coche y condujimos hasta nuestro piso en Bilbao. Desde el principio tuvimos claro que el taller lo organizaríamos allí, ya que había espacio suficiente en nuestro estudio para todos los estudiantes, y además ya sabéis que en el País Vasco hay rincones preciosos allá donde vayas para realizar fotografías. Llegamos muy cansados a casa, sobre todo Joel, que el día anterior se lo había pasado viajando desde Estados Unidos hasta Londres, y estaba con Jet Lag y sin pegar ojo. Cenamos unas pizzas y enseguida nos fuimos a dormir para coger fuerzas.On Thursday night Guille and I reached the airport to get Joel and Desirée. I don’t really know how they did it, but unless she was coming from Badajoz, and he was coming from London, their planes landed in Bilbao at the same hour, so we were really nervous. I thought our heart was literally going to go out of our chest as we were standing there watching people coming out of the door. Desirée was the first to arrive, recording her vlog from the very beginning. It had been 6 months since the last time we were together, and I missed her so bad! The three of us waited for Joel to appear. I didn’t know what to do, jumping or maybe die of embarrassment. Not always do I have the opportunity to meet someone that important! We drove together to our home in Bilbao. From the first time we already knew that the workshop was going to be in Bilbao, because we had enough space in our studio for every student, and you already know that in the Basque Country there are amazing places to shoot. We were really tired, specially Joel who had been travelling for more that two days from the USA to London and then here. We ate some pizzas and we went to bed.

Viernes – FridayAl día siguiente fui la primera en levantarme. (Bueno, en realidad siempre soy la primera y me suelo ganar varias broncas porque soy de las que les gusta despertar a la gente jaja!). Desayunamos fuerte, sobre todo Desirée, que no sabemos cómo lo hace pero come por 3 y sigue tan estilosa como siempre. Las hay con suerte 😛 Ella siempre dice que hay que Desayunar como un rey, comer como un príncipe y cenar como un pobre, pero realmente Desayuna, come y cena como una reina! Tostadas, galletas de chocolate (mis preferidas!), cereales, colacao y café. Sobre todo café para Joel porque ya sabemos todos que le encanta y no puede vivir sin su tacita. Cogimos las mochilas y nos lanzamos a la calle. Primero nos acercamos a la Alhondiga que era lo que más cerca nos pillaba de casa. Estuvimos recorriendo el primer piso a través de sus columnas y sobre todo viendo a la gente pasar nadando en la piscina que había en el piso de arriba.The following day I was the first one in waking up (Well, I’m always the first one, and sometimes people want to kill me because I try to wake them up haha!). We took a good breakfast, specially Desirée, who eats like the three of us together, but she is still as stilish as always. Some people are lucky :P. She is always saying that we have to have breakfast like a King, eat like a Prince and have dinner as a poor, but she does everything like a queen! Toasts, cookies (my faves!), cereals, cacao and Coffee. Coffee for Joel because we all know how much he likes it! He cannot live without his cup. First we went to the Alhondiga, which was the closest to our home. We were wandering through the columns and watching people swimming in the pool that was on the ceiling. Weird right?

Dando un paseo por la ría, pasamos por el Guggenheim escondido en una nube de niebla de preciosa y por último nos acercamos hasta el casco viejo donde comimos un buen menú en La MaryWe took a walk along the river and visited the Guggenheim museum hidden in a beautiful cloud of fog. At the end we reached the old town and enjoyed our meal in a great restaurant called La Mary.

Acabamos bastante cansados de tanto pasear, y después de comer pasamos la tarde en casa donde estuvimos probando unos flashes de Profoto que me habían prestado hace una semana en el Bilbao Photo Experience. Estuvimos toda la tarde haciendo fotos en casa hasta que se hizo de noche. Antes de que cerraran los supermercados fuimos a comprar comida para llevar al taller al día siguiente y preparar una rica tortilla de patata para cenar!We ended up very tired and after eating we went back home were we spent the afternoon testing the new flashes from Profoto. At night, before the markets were closed, we bought some food to bring to the workshop the following day, and we also cook a really good Tortilla de Patata for dinner!

Cuando se acercaba la hora los chicos del curso ya empezaron a llamarnos al móvil avisando de que ya habían llegado, yo feliz porque conocía a la gran mayoría de ellos y tenía muchísimas ganas de verlos! Después de muchos abrazos, besos y presentaciones, partimos en coche hacia nuestro destino.It’d been raining all night. I was nervous ’cause looking for the weather on the net I found out that it was going to continue raining, so, we made a decision to change the location to another place where it was going to be just cloudy. We love cloudy days but rain is not our friend! While Joel and Desirée prepared the sandwiches Guille and I got two cars. The students were already waiting for us in the street. I was really excited to see them! After a bunch of kisses, hugs and meetings, we took the cars and drove to our destination.

Después de deambular un rato buscando un lugar idóneo para comenzar, nos decantamos por un lago que encontramos al final de un sendero bastante embarrado. Hubo un par de sustos, yo incluida casi me voy de morros al suelo! haha! El sitio era alucinante, nunca pensé que después de andar cambiando de localización acabaríamos llegando a un sitio tan bonito. La suerte nos acompañó durante todo el día. Joel nos había preparado un montón de actividades, desde presentaciones en inglés, juegos, deberes sobre creatividad, charlas… y fotos. Sobre todo muchas fotos! Fue una experiencia maravillosa 🙂 While Joel and Desirée prepared the sandwiches Guille and I got two cars. The students were already waiting for us in the street. I was really excited to see them! After a bunch of kisses, hugs and meetings, we took the cars and drove to our destination. We wandered for an hour looking for the perfect place to begin the workshop. The floor was muddy and slippery, I even fall down! An hour later we ended in an amazing lake. I couldn’t believe what my eyes were watching, the place was so beautiful. We were so lucky to find it. Joel had prepared a lot of things, games, creativity homeworks, talks and pictures… a lot of pictures! It was a wonderful experience 🙂Incluso tuve la oportunidad de trabajar con Joel como modelo para una de mis fotografías: Un sueño hecho realidad.I even had the opportunity of working with Joel for one of my pictures: A dream come true.Después de sacar varias fotos en grupo cogimos las mochilas y volvimos al coche. Por el camino empezaron a sonar los truenos y acabó cayendo el diluvio universal. Abrimos los paraguas y bajamos corriendo y riendo hasta el coche. El karma nos había acompañado durante todo el día, y aunque el final estuvo pasado por agua pudimos disfrutar y aprender como nunca. Esa noche disfrutamos cenando todos los asistentes del taller juntos y volvimos a casa felices como perdices 🙂After taking some pictures together we took the bags and went back to the car. In our way a storm surprised us and it started to rain so much. We run together under our umbrellas, laughing. Karma had been with us for the whole day and even with that wet final we could enjoy and learn like never! That night we enjoyed a dinner together with all the students and came back home as happy as a cloud 🙂

Después de hacer un descanso y comer unas pizzas en casa, pudimos disfrutar de cómo retocaba la fotografía, con esa delicadeza que le acompaña siempre en su trabajo. Un placer para nuestros ojos. El workshop tocaba a su fin. Estábamos tristes y a la vez felices por todo lo que habíamos aprendido juntos! Esa noche dimos un paseo por la ría, nos tomamos unas cervezas y volvimos a casa a tiempo para cenar algunas verduritas antes de descansar. Me he pasado el fín de semana comiendo verduras gracias a Joel, cada día me gustan mas! After a brief break eating some pizzas at home, we could enjoy how he retouched the picture, with that finesse that always accompanies his work. A pleasure for our eyes. The workshop came to an end. We were sad but also happy because of everything we had learnt together! At night we went for a walk along the river, took some beers and came back home in time for dinner. I’m starting to like vegetables thanks to Joel!

Lunes – Monday Todavía nos quedaba un día para disfrutar, así que a pesar de la que estaba cayendo cogimos las mochilas y nos fuimos al bosque. No podíamos dejar que Desiree y Joel no vieran los paisajes que tenemos por el norte. Disfrutamos la mañana entre bosques llenos de niebla, e incluso pudimos hacer alguna foto y ayudar a Joel a hacer las suyas.We still had a day of to enjoy our journey, so even if it was raining like hell, we took our bags and went to the forest. We wanted Desi and Joel to see the landscapes of the Basque Country. We enjoyed the morning in foggy forests and we could even take some pictures and help Joel take hims.

Por la tarde la lluvia cesó y por fin salió el sol. Se nos pasaron las horas y al final acabamos comiendo a las 5 de la tarde unos sandwiches y un kebab buenísimos cerca de la playa. Tomamos el café mientras esperábamos que se pusiera el sol en el horizonte, dimos un paseo por la orilla, trepamos hasta lo alto de unas rocas y para finalizar el día Desirée y yo hicimos una foto juntas. Fue un día redondo, aprovechamos cada minuto al máximo! During the afternoon it stopped raining and finally the sun came out. It was really late and we ate some sandwiches and kebabs at 5pm, near the beach. We took a cup of coffee while the sun set in the horizon and we went for a walk along the seashore, climb to the top of some rocks and to finish the day Desirée and I took a picture together. It was an amazing day, we could squeeze every minute.

Our adventure was coming of an end. I have no words to describe these 5 days. Marvelous is not enough. Firstly, I’d like to thank every student of the workshop, for coming here from other parts of Spain. Without you this wouldn’t have been posible. and the models of course! Then, Desirée, because you know that being with you makes better every moment. You are one of those persons that crossed in my life to stay. Guille, for bearing my nervous and helping me organize this, you know how much I love you. And Joel. For choosing me. For trusting me. For giving me this opportunity I will never ever forget. You never get to know a persons in social media, but you are exactly the same as I imagined: quiet, timid, kind, positive and have a huge heart. I’ve learnt a lot from you, not only about your work, but about the way you see the life. You’ve always been and you’ll always be an example for me to follow. You make the world change for the better. You know that here you have some new friends forever! I’m sad because I miss you all so much, happy because I brought back a perfect memories, and willing to see which adventures the future brings us.